(continued from)
The finish line is in sight and I don’t won’t to wander too far off the track at this point. The heart of the Tungaske town in “This Town Ain’t Big Enough” supplies a doorway into deeper dimensions. This goes beyond the Canadian hamlet itself by this point. In terms of Lisa Simpson or Lisa The Vegetarian, in order for the town to survive and thrive, she must make peace with those who are less advanced spiritually. The heavy meat-eaters of the town, the at least slightly homophobic ones, those that are more prone to violent aggression and just more backwards in general. All of these qualities could be embodied in her brother Bart, in kin with father Homer. As she did in the episode “Lisa The Simpson”, she must recall that the male part of the family has a defective gene which suppresses their progress. The female side is not affected. But as a true androgyny, able to transcend polarity to find true essence, true vision, she must apply it to a larger situation and embrace the male energy within herself and love it still. Only then can she ascend. Only then can the town be saved. The open doorway represents the possibilities of art itself. At the heart of it, Lisa is an artist and always will be. She is, moreover, a *heartist*.
So the question, “What is the ‘Big Book of Rust’?” must remain unanswered. It is several, maybe even a good number of books in one. It is “Winesburg, Ohio”, it is the history book for Tungaske, it is this collection of interpretation posts, even. That’s where we must leave it for now. The cabin with the Big Chimney must remain a heartfelt mystery.
Collage 30, a simpler work as stated, brings everything to a close. We return to historic Tungaske characters for this one, perhaps school chums or, otherwise, mates of some kind. To their left is a Bootle of Boos, which obviously doubles for alcohol. The Boos of the town, the hungry ghost spirits, have been bottled up/captured/rendered harmless. For now. Peter Gabriel appears to the right, head down. His body is that of Ray Davies, whose dismembered hand is placed in the inverted world making up the top of the collage. Is this the hand that unconsciously reaches for alcohol too early in the day? The rust colored sculpture seen on top of lake cliffs in “The Boos Brothers” returns to remind us of the feminine energy needed for completion. Perhaps the Boos Brothers did eat her there, render *her* harmless. Now the tide has turned. The Tungaske men of the past have a chance to live again in timelessness. But they must accept the female or all is lost.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of, by my count, the 30 collage works making up the Boos series and will come back for more down the road.
Sunklands 